Case Study: SoundCloud achieves 84% faster system speed with Pythian's on-demand DBA services

SoundCloud increases system speed by 84% with Pythian

SoundCloud, a global music platform, faced significant challenges with its database infrastructure, including high read latencies and complex Cassandra outages that diverted its engineering team from innovation. The company engaged Pythian for its on-demand Database Administration (DBA) services to eliminate these bottlenecks and support a critical multi-datacenter migration.

Pythian implemented a deep-dive optimization of SoundCloud's DataStax clusters, refined the Java driver, and executed a zero-downtime multi-datacenter migration. This solution dramatically improved performance, reducing read latencies from 250ms to 40ms and achieving an 84% increase in overall system speed. The results allowed SoundCloud's team to reclaim hundreds of hours and refocus on strategic product development.

SoundCloud